This week, the duo has found a sweet ranch in Hurst. It’s got zero curb appeal right now, and a weird looking garage conversion that halved a two car garage to buy more room in the living room, but it has good bones.

And the two feel like Hurst is a good choice for people who don’t want to live in Dallas or Fort Worth but want to be close to Dallas or Fort Worth.

“This is the perfect option for people who want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city, but still be close,” Ashley points out on the drive over.

The house is on a big corner lot, which the two love. When they enter though, for a second I thought we legit might get our first murder house of the season.

“Whoa, smell that?” Ashley exclaims.

“Yeah, it stinks,” Andy agrees. No idea what it ended up being, but I think as we read you’ll probably have the same guess I do.

The living room needs some cosmetic help — the weird garage conversion looks weird on the inside of the house, too, so they agree that they need to scrape the popcorn ceilings, and try to make the room look like half of it didn’t come from a garage.

Bonus, though, it has a working fireplace that’s just begging for a little love.

But then we get to the kitchen. It’s a big kitchen. Great kitchen. But bad news, the cracks in the ceiling are even bigger.

“There are some major foundation issues here,” Andy says.

My notes: “HAHAHAHAHAHA $3,000 FOR FOUNDATION ISSUES.” As I said last week, I spent $17,000 on foundation work and it wasn’t nearly as egregious as this, so I will continue to giggle at $3,000.

The two continue through the two-bedroom, two-bath home, checking out one of the bathrooms.

There is also wallpaper everywhere. And not the good cool kind. The sad kind where there are dressed up ducks (by the way, my Nyquil dose almost made that a super interesting typo) with umbrellas marching down the hall to certain death or a fugly man cave, which may be the same thing.

For the second week in a row, the two luck into a space that can create an extra bedroom. In this case, it was a long, rectangular bedroom that the two immediately saw could become two bedrooms, making their home a three-bedroom, two-bath.

Stealing some room from an extra long bathroom they were going to have to redo anyway would enable them to create a entry for the new bedroom.

“I think this is the best one so far. I think you should put in a full-price offer,” Ashley told Andy. The two paid $132,000 for the house, and estimate that after closing costs and the cost of remodeling, their final would be something like $187,000 all-in. With comps hovering around $240,000, they stand to make a nice chunk of change.

“I’m game buddy, you game?” Ashley asks Andy. Have I mentioned how much I love this couple? I mean, y’all can ‘ship Chip and Jo all you want, but these two are fun to watch and Andy never takes his shirt off or tries to eat a bug. I’m #TeamAshleyandAndy.

Now that they’ve bought the house, demo begins.

My notes: “There’s a concern! A concern!”

Seems the contractor, Blake Johnson, has found that the drains for the sewer are super goofy. Seriously, the sewer line goes all around the outside of the house, snaking around the yard.“I guess that’s a good way to avoid having to go into the slab,” Andy said, dubiously. And of course, he agrees that since they’re moving plumbing around anyway, now would be the time to install those lines correctly.

Oh hey, that foundation needed 10 piers. Andy’s telling Ashley and this was the closest I saw them get into a slight argument.

“You’ve already done the framing before the foundation?” she asks, a little alarmed.

Andy explains that the framers were on a schedule, and if they didn’t frame the house out that day, they would’ve had to wait 10 days to get framing up. For those of you who don’t understand construction, framing is the bones. If you don’t have framing, you can’t put up sheetrock which means you can’t paint the walls and that means you can’t put up other finishes and artwork.

Among other things.

“If there’s any damage, we’ll fix it,” Andy says.

But then there is more bad news. According to my notes, “DOOOOOOOM.” I get a little hyperbolic with cold medication.

This is always bad news.

Apparently, the pipes running through the house are decayed. “We’re chasing bad pipe,” the contractor says. Of course, this means that they’ll need to jackhammer just a little more slab, but good news – the project should still be on budget.

Walking through the house, checking progress, Ashley and Andy discover that the framing in the master wasn’t done correctly for the planned pocket doors.

So what did you think? I’ll put a few screen grabs at the bottom of this so you can see the transformation. Did you watch? And do you have any question about materials I can run down for you? Let me know in the comments!

Bethany Erickson is the education, consumer affairs, and public policy columnist for CandysDirt.com. She also has opinions about TV shows, lima beans, and wine. Contact her at bethany@candysdirt.com or on Twitter at BethEricksonTX.

One Comment

This was my childhood home, I promise it’s not a murder house, lol! After high school, I moved out as did my mother. My aunt and cousin moved in it with my grandmother and they all destroyed the place. My grandmother passed away in August 2016 and since I don’t have much contact with family Inwasnt sure what happened with the house after she passed. It’s so crazy to see this transformation! It looks so different and I’m happy it’s being taken care of and new better memories can be made in this great family-home.